Companion planting
In order to get the maximum food/nutrition value out of your garden, plant your seeds next to others that will add value to their neighboring plants.
Yarrow tends to increase the essential oil content of most herbs which gives them more flavor and nutrition.
Some plants go well together and others must not be planted anywhere near each other. They are not all mutually beneficial either. For example:
lettuce is a good companion for onions but onions, while not harmful to, are not the best companion to lettuce. Some companions simply provide pest
control for their neighbors but, that too, is a useful function. Some provide shade for their companions at a crucial stage of growth and serve as
good neighbors that way.
Most preppers probably don't care why some plants work well together; we have enough to cram into our brains as it is, but there are reasons for all
these pairings. Once you determine what you're going to put into your garden, look to see which companions will offer more of what you want out of a
plant. For instance, if you prefer your bell peppers for ornamental purposes, you may want to companion plant marigolds for aphid control rather than
carrots which improve the flavor of the pepper.
Good companions for asparagus are tomato and parsley.
Companions for (most all) beans are carrots, beets, cauliflower, cucumbers, cabbage, leeks, celery, or spinach.
Cabbage is benefited by the companion planting of dill, camomile, sage, rosemary, beets, tomatoes, hyssop, hemp, peppermint, spinach. Obviously, an
easy-to-please plant.
Carrots pair with peas, leaf lettuce, chives, red radish, salsify, or leeks.
Cauliflower companions with celery.
Chervil will benefit from radishes.
Corn goes well with potatoes, beans, peas, pumpkin, cucumber.
Eggplants next to green beans.
Flax likes carrots and potatoes. (who doesn't?)
Lettuce benefits from radish, kohlrabi, strawberry, carrots, cabbage, beets.
Marigold (calendula, not tagetes) is improved with roses, tomatoes, potatoes, or beans.
Garlic companions with roses, parsley, minonette, lupines.
Peppermint benefits from stinging nettle or yarrow.
Potatoes grow well with horseradish, beans, corn, cabbage, peas, flax, or nasturtiums nearby.
Hyssop likes grapes or cabbage.
Onions are egalitarian plants but especially like beets, strawberry, tomato, green beans, camomile, savory, lettuce or carrots.
Kohlrabi goes well with beets or onions.
Melons prefer morning glory plants nearby.
Broccoli improves with nasturtiums.
Nasturtiums reciprocate with broccoli, radish and potatoes. They also do well with tomatoes.
Parsley companions with roses, tomatoes.
Peppers go with buckwheat, eggplant, marjoram, basil, onions, carrots, spinach, lovage.
Peas like radish, carrots, cucumbers, corn, beans, turnips.
Radishes do well with peas, nasturtium, lettuce, or chervil.
Rosemary goes with sage, carrots, or yarrow.
Spinach companions with strawberry, lettuce, borage.
Tomato likes carrots, borage, onion, asparagus, marigold, nasturtium, basil, or spinach.
Plants to avoid pairing
Just as some plants are benefited by a helpful neighbor, some are harmed. Fennel seems to be an antisocial plant that prevents good growth of several
plants. I keep it in a separate part of the garden where it won't bother any of the others.
Instead of trying to plant grass on that bald spot under your apple or spruce tree where it won't grow, try tossing out the wild morrel rinse water
next time you forage for 'shrooms. The bald spot will be gone and your next trip for foraged morels will be a lot closer to home due to all the spores
in the rinse water.
Apricot trees don't do well with oats, spruce or tomatoes nearby.
Anise avoids wormwood.
Barley doesn't do well with velvet grass.
Sweet Basil is not companion to rue.
Green beans are not companion to onions, shallots, garlic, or fennel.
Bush beans are not planted with fennel, gladiolus, onions.
Pole Beans avoid onions, beets, kohlrabi.
Beech trees are not benefited by planting ferns or spruce.
Beets are not companion with pole beans, charlock, or field mustard.
Camomile avoids wheat or rye seedlings.
Avoid planting clover with buttercups, or henbane.
Cabbage is not benefited by strawberries.
Caraway doesn't do well with fennel or wormwood.
Cinquefoil doesn't prefer butternut, black walnut, or sugar maple trees.
Coriander is not to be planted with fennel.
Carrots don't go with dill.
Chickweed (a nutritional powerhouse) doesn't do well with rye nearby.
Cucumbers should avoid plantings near aromatic shrubs.
Fennel is not to be planted with bush beans, caraway, tomatoes, kohlrabi, or wormwood.
Flax should avoid companioning with false flax, or any bean seedlings,field bindweed, or Canada thistle.
Grapes don't companion with cypress or spurges.
Hyssop avoids radish.
Hedge mustard avoids turnips.
Kohlrabi should avoid planting near fennel.
Narcissus doesn't companion with lily of the valley.
Peach trees, oddly enough, don't seem to like the company of older peach trees while they're trying to reach maturity.
Peppermint doesn't go with camomile.
Pumpkin avoids potato.
Poppies avoid rye.
Pear trees do better without grass or spruce nearby.
Potatoes don't companion with cucumbers, orach, birch trees, sunflowers, pumpkins, or walnut trees.
Peas avoid garlic, onion, shallots, fladiolus, and early potatoes.
Quackgrass doesn't go with soybeans, tomatoes or 2 succesive crops of rye.
Roses don't go with boxwood.
Raspberries don't companion with blackberries.
Rapeplant doesn't go with hedge or field mustard.
Radishes avoid hyssop.
Sunflowers avoid potatoes.
Shrubs don't do well with salvia species or artemesia species.
Sesame avoids sorghum.
Strawberry doesn't companion with cabbage.
Sage doesn't go with wormwood.
Tomatoes should avoid planting next to rue, kohlrabi, cabbage family, dill, fennel, potatoes, or walnut trees.
Turnips avoid knotweed, and hedge mustard.
Wormwood avoids white mustard, deadly nightshade, fennel.
Wheat is very finicky and should not have the following planted nearby: buckwheat, cherry, violets, maple, wild pansy, pine, poppies, sorghum,
camomile (in large amounts), dogwood, tulips, field bindweed, Canadian thistle.
edit on 12-4-2012 by whitewave because: (no reason given)